Gwanak-gu, Seoul

• Home
• Community, People and Living
• International Relations
• Gwanak-gu, Seoul

Gwanak-gu, with more than 500,000 inhabitants (532,012 in 2006), is one of largest of the 25 administrative districts (gu) of Seoul. In 2006 Kingston and Gwanak-gu signed a Declaration of Intent to work towards cooperation between the two councils.

Gwanak-gu is situated south of the river Han and is dominated by Mount Gwanak which is its symbol. Mount Gwanak and other green spaces take up almost half of the surface area of ca. 30 square km, making for a very high population density. There has been very rapid residential development since the 70s and today Gwanak-gu is considered one of the preferred Seoul residential districts. Only 1.5% of Gwanak’s area is in industrial use.

Gwanak-gu’s vision is to be a “high quality residential city, a sustainable eco city and a leading educational and welfare city”. English language learning plays a major part in this and Gwanak council has just opened an English Language Café in its council offices which gives access to English language tuition to all Gwanak residents. Gwanak is also the home of one of the three “English Villages” in Seoul which try to create an English environment to offer English language immersion for students.

A major environmental project is the opening up and redesign of Dorim stream which takes as its model the extremely successful restoration of Cheonggyecheon river in central Seoul.

Seoul National University, Korea’s most prestigious university is located in Gwanak-gu district and attracts an international community of teaching staff and students.